Jamie Dupree’s Washington Insider

Archive for ‘April, 2014’

The head of the federal agency that runs the National Weather Service defended the work of government forecasters on the recent outbreak of severe weather in the United States, pushing back against GOP criticism that the Obama Administration is trying to add money for climate change research at the expense …

Unveiling a new round of television ads, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week is funneling even more money into House and Senate races for 2014, targeting races in Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Alaska and Montana. The spending follows through on a promise made early this year by U.S. Chamber …

Congress loves to tell the Executive Branch to submit reports on all kinds of issues. It’s one way to assure oversight, by requiring various federal agencies to detail their work on certain items. But over the years, Congress has added report after report, requiring agencies to spend more time writing …

After taking two weeks off for an Easter break, the House and Senate return to work Monday, with agendas that clearly signal how both sides hope to use the coming months in Congress as a springboard to victory in the November elections. The first big election issue will surface in …

Starting Friday in and around Charleston, South Carolina, the Special Operations Command of the Marine Corps will begin an extended training session to prepare for possible missions against Al-Qaeda terrorists by using a group of role players as part of pre-deployment exercises. “This exercise is considered to be an important …

Outraged by a Treasury Department report which showed the IRS paid cash bonuses and gave extra time off to more than 2,800 tax agency workers who had been cited for internal misconduct, lawmakers in both parties demanded answers and changes in how the IRS hands out employee performance awards in …

A new report shows the Internal Revenue Service routinely gave bonuses and time off awards to tax agency workers who had been disciplined internally for job-related misconduct, which included fraud, misuse of government credit cards and the failure to properly pay their federal taxes to Uncle Sam. “Total absurdity,” said …

My interest in radio was spurred at the age of 13, when I used money from my Detroit Free Press paper route to buy a radio from the local department store; there was an unknown bonus on that Sony radio, the shortwave bands, which opened my eyes to the world, …

It’s always good to get outside of Washington, D.C. and take the temperature of the nation, and it’s even better to do it in some very different places on the map. Despite the differences, one thing is very obvious – both parties are already looking with great interest to the …

While a lot of Americans work all kinds of different hours, the Monday-to-Friday work week is still pretty common for millions of people. But that’s not the case in the U.S. Senate. For a few hours on Thursday, it looked like the Senate would hang around on Friday – even …